An ancient inn, it was once called the Archangel Gabriel Saluting the Virgin Mary. This annoyed the Puritan zealots, with the proprietor was obliged to change it to the Soldier and Citizen. This was again changed in 1660, at the return of the Stuart kings. During the English Civil War, the pub people used as a recruiting centre for both Cavaliers and Parliamentarians at different times. The date, 1240, appears on the outside of the inn indicating perhaps, the first building on the site, with there is a carbon timber date of 1360. Beneath the foundations are hewn out caves, which were once thought to be storage cellars. These were investigated and found to have been an ancient Saxon settlement. These caves are haunted by a girl, aged about four or five, with thought to have been a street urchin who came to an untimely end in the 1800s. Reports claim that a previous proprietor was so terrified by the various ghosts and apparitions that appeared that he took his own life. Now he is one of them himself. A highwayman is also suspected of haunting the inn.